I’ve heard deepening distaste for Norton in general, to the point where it’s non-recommended. Leo Laporte said on air he HATES Norton, which is a pretty strong on-air statement. His general take on it is that in an effort to be more and more “effective” it has been upgraded to the point where either it doesn’t work properly OR it has become a target in and of itself. I agree that AVG is better.
By the way, the act of de-installation of Norton in and of itself is 100% known to block ALL internet access. This happened to my brother (35 year computer dude) and he couldn’t get around it until he went to Leo Laporte’s site and found the workaround...which was suggested by a friend who heard about this on Leo’s radio show. Should you choose to de-install Norton, make sure you get the workaround BEFORE you do so, since (unless you have another computer) you’ll not be able to get the info post-de-installation.
I abandoned Norton after doing battle with their tech support people and getting no help whatsoever. I’m sure they were out sourced help and I had a difficult time understanding what they were trying to tell me to do.
I don’t know what all the Hubbub is about norton but I’ve been using it for years and with the exception of it being resource heavy, it has done a good job of protecting 3 laptops and 2 desktops here. I recently bought a 5 liscense package for internet security 2008. works great with using less resources and they gave me a free update to version 2009 which runs smoother still. JMT.